For the 14 Dhangar families, the whopping Rs 12 crore compensation package for the 36,800 sq metres of land will make a world of a difference. Their sustained agitation has finally paid off rich dividends. Sadly, this kind of settlement would also bring into focus the injustice meted out to the hundreds of others whose land has been acquired for a pittance.
The 14 Dhangar families have now got a house for each family in a 100 sq metre land, 800 sq metres of land for each family, a cowshed in 50 sqmt land, a community hall with seating capacity of 150 people, a crematorium, a grazing land of 20,000 sq metres for goats and cattle, one assured job for each family at the airport, besides power, water, road and other infrastructural facilities. Against the backdrop of such a windfall, this Dhangar package will leave a bitter feeling among several others who have meekly given away their land for the Mopa project for as low as Rs 25 to 80 per sq metre and that too without any strings attached.
What is strikingly different and surprising with this land acquisition is not the tempting Dhangar package, but the fact that government agreed to compensate twice for the same piece of land. Besides the Dhangars, the government will pay out about six land owners for the same land acquired. This entire arrangement is questionable since the Dhangar families were neither owners nor tenants of the land in question. They were officially declared "encroachers" and were eligible for compensation equivalent only to their dwelling unit. The government's move to classify them as "project-affected families'' and the humongous dole package announced has raised several concerns.
There could have been a huge saving in money and cost if alternatively these 14 Dhangar families could be rehabilitated on government land in nearby Varkhand, which is not geographically far. On the contrary government succumbed to the pressures of the families and agreed to pay the price, settling for Cansarvarnem land belonging to Shree Sateri Devi temple.
Sports Minister and Pernem MLA Babu Azgaonkar who has been doing the spade work for the Dhangars may be content that he has fulfilled his election promise, but there are many questions that have been left unanswered, raising strong suspicion of land deals and commissions. The deals may appear rosy for some, but for the 78,41,730 square meters of land acquired across nine villages in Pernem taluka, only around 15 per cent of the people have been settled by way of compensation. There are many who are trapped in legal wrangling and still unsure of what the future holds as the Mopa airport takes off.
